Man's death shows difficulty of helping homeless

Tuesday

WICHITA - A homeless man who may have frozen to death under a bridge in Wichita had refused offers of help because he didn't want to be confined in a shelter, police and homeless advocates said.

Officers making a welfare check discovered the body Sunday afternoon. Police identified the man Tuesday as Donald L. Hipsher and said a coroner determined he died of hypothermia and heart problems, although the results of a toxicology test were pending, The Wichita Eagle reported.

Hipsher was the 10th homeless person known to have died in Wichita this year, according to The Eagle.

Police and service providers had repeatedly asked the man to go to a shelter but he refused, said Officer Nate Schwiethale, part of the police department's three-officer Homeless Outreach Team that has found housing for more than 100 people since February.

Several homeless people left the encampment months ago and found housing, Schwiethale said, but the man couldn't be persuaded to leave.

"It's tragic," the officer said. "He did have some income, through Social Security. He had enough money to live in housing. We could have tried to get him an apartment."

Schwiethale said the man had a drinking problem.

"A lot of them just don't want to be around other people," said Tom Myers, who oversees a men's shelter at the Union Rescue Mission. "For whatever reason, they just want to stay out. They feel boxed in if they come to a shelter."

He said the shelter had room on Saturday night when the wind chill was between zero and 5 above.

Little can be done when a homeless person refuses help because being homeless isn't a crime, Schwiethale said.

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